


one step closer (to reach you)

by unbalancedlove



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Love Potion/Spell, M/M, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-20
Updated: 2018-08-20
Packaged: 2019-06-29 23:57:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15739917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unbalancedlove/pseuds/unbalancedlove
Summary: there isn't a class in hogwarts that teaches you what to do when your crush drinks a potion and falls madly in love with you.





	one step closer (to reach you)

**Author's Note:**

> hello i am back with more markhyuck fluff but with a little bit of magic this time!!!!!
> 
> thank you kaya for helping me through the meltdown i had writing this jfrnhgjbthjg ilu my favorite hyuck stan
> 
> note: all the dreamies are the same age here!

 

**** donghyuck shoves past three first year students standing in front of the entrance to the ravenclaw tower. he doesn’t hesitate before giving the answer that they’ve been searching for for the past hour.

“it’s eighteen.”

like clockwork, the door opens, and donghyuck smirks at the astonished kids before running straight into the boys’ dormitories while ignoring the protests coming from renjun, the house prefect.

mark is still soundly sleeping despite the bright sun shining on his face through the blue curtains. must have stayed up reading again.

donghyuck flops himself down on top of him. “rise and shine, mark lee!” he screams, feeling relieved that none of mark’s annoying roommates are here today. their group of friends had the unfortunate luck of meeting on the hogwarts express on their first trip to the school and clicking instantly, only to be sorted into different houses hours later. but it was fine, because they had meal times and classes and summer breaks at chenle’s house and, best of all, trips to hogsmeade. 

donghyuck also has the self-appointed privilege of having full access to the ravenclaw dormitories, much to the dismay of renjun, who wanted to keep the slytherin seeker out before he got into another fight over who deserved to win the quidditch cup last year.

“too bright,” mark mumbles as he wiggles his way deeper into the covers, letting only a mess of black hair peek out from underneath. “go away renjun, i was having a really nice dream.”

too sleepy to tell his best friends’ voices apart? donghyuck is equally offended and amused. “oh yeah? about what?”

mark lets out a frustrated huff. “what else? donghyuck, obviously.”

all the blood in donghyuck’s body suddenly stops pumping. this stopped being fun really quickly. “nice and donghyuck? that’s odd, coming from you.”

maybe his mind is leaping to weird conclusions and it’s just a dream where mark goes an entire day without donghyuck tormenting him (in the most loving way possible, of course), it’s all easy to explain away but donghyuck still can’t will himself to shake this weird feeling off.

“why would it be odd when he’s literally the love of my life?” mark pulls down the covers violently, his eyes still shut tight to protect him from the burst of sudden light. “you’re acting so weird toda-”

they stare at each for a solid minute, during which mark’s lips won’t stop trembling and donghyuck contemplates running away from the school and never returning (he only had another year left anyway). but he just sits perfectly still and waits for mark to reveal it’s a joke to freak him out.

unfortunately, mark shocks him even further by doing the exact opposite of that.

“god, donghyuck! you know i hate it when you come over while i’m sleeping,” mark shrieks as he backs up into the headboard, eyes shaking. “i look so ugly after i just woke up, just look at this trail of drool,” he says pitifully, tracing the said trail with his index finger like it’s a deep and ugly scar. 

“and you care that i see you when you look ugly because….?” donghyuck asks. nothing that’s coming out of mark’s mouth is making any sense right now, and mark has said a lot of stupid shit in the six years that he’s known him for.

mark blushes and looks down. “you already know the answer to that question by now.”

during his time in hogwarts, lee donghyuck has had his fair share of strange incidents. there was the time when he and mark befriended a family of nifflers in the forbidden forest, or the time chenle and jisung drank each other’s polyjuice potions as a prank, or the time yukhei made all the bones inside his own body disappear. 

but by far, his crush accidentally confessing to him first and then acting completely cool about it instead of vehemently denying that he ever said anything has to be the strangest.

just as donghyuck is about to drag mark to the infirmary to see if he drank a weird potion before going to bed, jisung walks into the room with a big smile on his face, sees the two of them and turns around and runs.

so naturally, donghyuck sprints after him.

he’s lucky that renjun stops him in his tracks to give him a lecture about running around the common room with his wand. 

donghyuck grabs jisung by the shoulders. “what did you and chenle do this time?” he asks through gritted teeth. these two brats are going to kill someone one day and donghyuck is starting to worry that it was going to be mark.

“it was just me this time! no chenle involved!” jisung says, waving his hands. “okay maybe it was chenle’s idea bu-”

“will you get to the point?” renjun cuts him off impatiently. 

“chenle might have thought it would be funny if one of us tried to drink a love potion and i might have thought it would be funnier if it was mark so i might have stolen one from jaemin’s inventory and given it to mark last night before he went to sleep.”

to donghyuck, jaemin is his annoying best friend who tries to kiss everyone in the room after drinking one sip of firewhiskey, but to everyone else at hogwarts, he’s the top unauthorized potions merchant in the school (even gotten some regular customers in the form of staff). you name it, jaemin probably has it at a very reasonable price. it helps that he’s also been the top of their class at for six years running and that his family have been running a potions business for the past fifteen generations. 

“might have.” donghyuck repeats, hearts sinking when he realizes that mark didn’t mean anything he said.

“i cannot confirm or deny anything,” jisung shakes his head, turning to renjun, who looks like he’s trying his best to stop himself from putting him in a (well deserved) chokehold.

“jisung, do you understand how powerful love potions can be? this is pretty serious.” his and chenle’s pranks are a lot more fun when they’re charming themselves instead of his poor unsuspecting best friend.

jisung does not appreciate his condescending tone. typical annoying ravenclaw. “i didn’t think it was, i mean, isn’t that what jeno was on when he went on a thirty minute rant about how beautiful jaemin’s eyes are?”

“no, that was just jeno being….jeno.”

“wow, ew.”

“yeah, i know,” donghyuck grimaces. “but that’s beside the fucking point, thanks to your genius plan, we can’t go to the infirmary and get him checked out because then we’ll have to explain where we got the potion from. what if he stays like this forever?” what will donghyuck do then, marry mark and take care of him for the rest of his life while mark worships the very ground he walked on? wait, that didn’t sound so bad.

“it’s fine, jaemin’s formula isn’t strong, it wears off in 12 hours, max,” renjun reassures him as he massages his temple like he’s having the worst headache of his life. “plus, he has an antidote so we can actually just call him over and take care of this right away.”

“yeah….that might be a problem,” jisung says in a small voice. 

“what, did you do something to him too?” 

“right, like i’d try to pull something like that on jaemin of all people,” jisung rolls his eyes. “he and jeno left for hogsmeade like an hour ago, said they’ll be gone the whole day.”

donghyuck drags his feet back to mark’s room after jisung and renjun went off and he was left to watch mark until jaemin came back with the antidote. 

“he’d keep whining for you if you leave him now,” renjun rationalizes. “i saw it happen to chaewon once, and it wasn’t pretty.”

this is really not how he pictured his sunday afternoon. he was supposed to wake up mark so they could go to hogsmeade together and then come back early to practice alone (you don’t become slytherin’s star player by wasting the weekends away at the three broomsticks).

“you’re back!” mark says, throwing his arms up in the air. he’s still in his pajamas. “i missed you lots.”

donghyuck sits at the corner of the bed, keeping a careful distance. “i was gone for ten minutes.”

“way too long,” mark insists. his speech is a little slurry, and he keeps swaying slowly from left to right. donghyuck wonders if he’s aware of what he’s doing, and how he’ll feel later when he comes back to his senses and remembers all of this. 

for now, he just wishes he could skip all this awkwardness and go straight to the part where he’s making fun of him tomorrow. 

“are you feeling okay?” donghyuck asks after a long silence, genuinely concerned. mark looks pretty delirious.

mark shakes his head. “i’m pretty dizzy, and my body feels like it’s on fire.” he pulls down on the neckline of his damp shirt to demonstrate, exposing his collarbones, and donghyuck gulps.

“well, uh, can i get you anything?” he looks away.

“yeah, you,” mark answers simply, making donghyuck’s heart rate skyrocket. “you’re sitting too far from me.”

mark is very much his own of lovesick. he’s needy and whiny but not in the obnoxious way that donghyuck expected it, rather with a lot more subtle and soft display of affection, kind of like how mark always is, except now he’s saying embarrassing things that he wouldn’t be caught dead saying any other day. but maybe that’s just how donghyuck sees it because he happens to be  _ actually _ in love with him.

“do i smell or something? because i did brush my teeth,” mark continues, completely oblivious. “just in case we kissed or something.”

“i-uh, i don’t think that’s going to happen today,” donghyuck answers. as much as he’d love to be kissing him right now, he would never take advantage of his best friend like this. it wouldn’t feel right anyway, knowing that this isn’t how he really feels and he’ll just regret it all tomorrow. besides, he won’t ever be able to trust donghyuck again.

“figured you’d say that,” mark pouts. he lies back down and gets under the covers. “you’re so dumb, won’t even understand why i push you away when you try to hug me in front of everyone.”

donghyuck doesn’t have to think this one through. it seems weird for someone under a love potion to say something like that, but he doesn’t dwell too much on it. “why, because you secretly like it and don’t want me to expose you to all our friends?”

mark stays quiet, and it only hurts him more. why can’t any of this be real?

he scooches a little closer, trying to convince himself that he’s only doing it so it wouldn’t hurt mark’s feelings. mark responds by grabbing his robes and pushing him down so that they were now facing each other. donghyuck hopes that mark doesn’t hear the loud drumming of his heart, and then wonders if it really matters if he does.

“i can see your face better now,” he smiles contently, it’s that cute smile that makes his nose scrunch up. donghyuck’s favorite. “has anyone told you that you’re very handsome? pretty eyes.”

he tenses up at the compliment, but then forces himself to calm down and just play along because, well, why not just enjoy this while it lasts? he could tell mark tomorrow that he was just trying to see how far he could take this so he could have more blackmail material in the future. yeah, that seemed reasonable. great thinking donghyuck.

“plenty of people,” donghyuck smiles, squirming around to get more comfortable. girls, boys, a few ghosts even. “never you, though.”

mark furrows his eyebrows. “how could i not? just look at you.” he strokes donghyuck’s cheek lightly. “and since we’re here now i’ll tell you in detail.”

donghyuck takes a deep breath. “i’m all ears.”

“you radiate a certain warmth that i’m addicted to, and i find myself drawn to you in a way i can’t even explain,” mark mumbles on. “it’s not just that you’re handsome, i’ve met plenty people who are, but everything you do is attractive. your demeanor, your laughter, the way you charm an entire room without uttering a single spell. even when you’re teasing me, i like you then too because i can still feel your affection for me pouring out. and-” he blushes and bites his lower lip.

“and?” 

“i really wish you would hold me right now.”

there isn’t a single cell in donghyuck’s body that wills him to say no.

he spreads out his arms, and mark only hesitates for a second before moving closer and pressing his chest against donghyuck’s as his arms wrap around him. mark’s skin really does feel like it’s on fire, but he doesn’t mind it at all, all donghyuck can think about is mark’s warm breath against his neck, how soft he feels through the damp t-shirt, how he kicks around the blanket until his legs are entangled with donghyuck’s. they’ve been friends for so long, but all of this feels so new, and donghyuck feels like he’s touching mark for the first time ever.

“perfect,” mark sighs, echoing donghyuck’s thoughts. “i’ve fantasized about this every single time you came over. who knew all i had to do was just ask.”

“as if i’d ever say no to that,” donghyuck replies without thinking.

“see, even though we’re screaming at each other half of the time, i don’t think i’ve ever met a person who matches me as perfectly as you do. we’re like two pieces of a puzzle. i guess that sounds self-centered, but that must be what attracts me so much to you.”

donghyuck can’t say anything in return. it’s a lot to take in, mostly because he’s felt the same way for years but had never found the right word to describe it, let alone even say it out loud to mark. he wonders if jaemin’s potion is powerful enough to be able to reflect the emotions of the receiver, or at least tell them what they want to hear.

“you're such a nerd….but it’s really cute,” he adds the last part when mark pouts again.

“cute enough to kiss?” mark presses on again, and donghyuck contemplates pushing him off and leaving, renjun’s instructions be damned.

this is his own personal hell.

“not today,” he says again, trying his hardest to keep the same breezy tone.

“why noooooot,” mark whines in a high pitched voice that donghyuck has never heard before in his life. he’s terrified. “please, i’ve wanted this for years. since we were fourteen and you flew right to where i was in the crowd and hugged me tight after you won the house cup.”

donghyuck still remembers that day very clearly. his team was losing very badly, but he made a promise with jaemin the day before. _ if you catch the snitch, you have to confess to mark. _ it was jaemin’s solution to his ‘my best friend won’t stop making sad puppy eyes at my other best friend all the time’ problem, because donghyuck has never failed to catch it since he made the team in his second year, even when slytherin lost the game.

but when he saw the confused smile on mark’s face after they broke apart, all the courage that he spent weeks mustering were gone.

_ you were just the first person i noticed in the stands, don’t think too much of it, _ he lied later.

“sometimes, i look at your eyes and feel like that’s what you want too,” mark adds in a hushed whisper, like he’s letting donghyuck in on a big secret.

this only makes donghyuck more confused. “wait, mark, did you or did you not drink something before going to bed last night?” he feels stupid for not asking this question earlier.

mark thinks about it for a second. “yeah, i was having trouble sleeping and i was complaining to jisung about it, and he gave me this potion, said it’ll knock me out right away.” he points at a small green bottle with a label that read  _ na’s old-fashioned sleeping draught _ on his nightstand.

donghyuck’s heart sinks again. this is how jaemin packaged all his love potions.

“even if i’m wrong, could we just stay like this for a little while? just let me have one day.” mark looks small and vulnerable, like he’s never wanted something so much before. watered down formula, his ass, how could a potion be this powerful? donghyuck hates jaemin as much as he is impressed with his talent right now.

“one day,” he nods, holding mark tighter, searching for any sincerity in his eyes, but he just can’t tell where his best friend’s feelings begin and the magic ends.

“really, really handsome,” mark whispers again, his fingers gently tracing donghyuck’s soft features from his forehead down to his lips, and donghyuck draws a sharp breath, tears forming at the corner of his eyes, because despite his popularity and all the attention he gets at school, he thinks that he’s never been this loved before.

he probably won’t ever again, not in the way he craves anyway.

“when you say not today,” mark says, fingertips still lingering on donghyuck’s lips. “does this mean that we could ever-”

donghyuck only responds with a tiny nod, so he continues. “i could stop, if you want me to.”

“i don’t- i really don’t want you to.” what is he even saying anymore? he can’t let this happen, he can’t allow mark to do something that he will definitely regret tomorrow, something that he probably does not want to do.

but his recollection of their memories together did not sound like magical induced nonsense, it sounded just like  _ mark _ , who loves poetry and pretty words and packaging his feelings in the sappiest and most elaborate sentences. this long confession is something only he could come up with.

mark smiles, he only has to move a millimeter for their noses to bump together, and just as he closes his eyes, the door swings open.

“jaemin is here to save your as-” jaemin steps back abruptly, knocking jeno behind him. “ew, ew, ew, ew oh my god….ew.”

renjun shoves past them. “can you all get this over with quickly? i don’t want people to give me shit for letting in  _ another _ slytherin and a huffl- oh my god lee donghyuck no.”

“it’s not what it looks like?” donghyuck says weakly as mark waves to their friends happily.

it took jaemin ten minutes of listening to donghyuck’s explanation of what happened (as mark, who was still feeling dizzy and feverish, took a nap on his shoulder) while they were gone before deciding to drop the bomb on all of them.

“jisung, can you hand me that bottle please?” he asks. 

“you really should be more upset at jisung for stealing your shit,” renjun interjects. “and use your fucking wand, we’re not your slaves.”

jaemin shakes his head. “no, jisung is perfect and i love him. now let me see.” he holds the potion up to the sunlight and squints.

“what are you looking for? this  _ is _ one of your love potions,” donghyuck says. he would know, he even helps him package them sometimes.

“no it’s not, you fucking idiot,” jaemin replies. “this bottle is one shade darker than the ones i sell. this is a new product that i’ve been testing lately. but of course, even jisung’s sharp eyes couldn’t detect the difference.” 

“well, what is it then?” an actual sleeping draught? brain elixir? rat poison? donghyuck couldn’t for the life of him guess what mark would take to make him behave like that.

it’s jeno who speaks up. “that’s a truth serum.”

 

“mark! please let me in!” donghyuck knocks again hours later, ignoring the nasty looks coming from all the ravenclaws around him. 

renjun places a hand on his shoulder. “it’s getting late, you really should leave before someone calls professor seo in here.” 

“but-” he looks at the door. when mark finally woke up from his nap, it only took him a few seconds to not only remember what he's done, but also look around the room and see all his friends standing there and realize that they  _ knew _ . donghyuck didn’t even managed to get a word in as he was getting kicked out with the rest of them.

“you’ll see him in class tomorrow, it’s not like he can avoid you forever,” renjun replies as he drags him out by his arm. people actually start cheering, and donghyuck swears he could make out jisung’s voice in there.

“i-it’s just that,” he sniffles. he hates himself for crying over this, but the tension that has been building up inside of him for the past few hours has finally reached its peak. at least they’re out in the deserted hallway now.

“you can’t wait until tomorrow to tell him his feelings are not unrequited?” 

“i’m so happy, renjun,” he sobs. “so, so relieved.”

to his surprise, renjun pulls him into his arms and pats his head, which only makes him cry harder. “i know, now go get some rest, for both our sakes.”

 

mark isn’t in the great hall for breakfast the next morning, and donghyuck doesn't worry about it too much, because they have potions together right after and his best friend hasn't missed a single class this year. he understands the shame and embarrassment that mark must be feeling right now, but frankly he just wishes he could stop being embarrassed long enough for donghyuck to tell him the full truth. 

mark does show up to potions, stumbling in a few minutes late while looking like he hasn't gotten a wink of sleep the previous night. he doesn't take his usual seat next to donghyuck, opting instead to squeeze himself between renjun and jaemin. professor kim shoots him a stern look but carries on as usual.

“ _ incarcerous _ !” donghyuck yells when mark sprints out of the classroom the moment the lecture is over, and he falls over when thick ropes are conjured around his arms and legs. 

“let me go!” mark yells, struggling to get off the ground. donghyuck walks over quietly and drags him to the nearest empty classroom.

“i had to humiliate myself in front of everyone in your house yesterday,” donghyuck says as he unties his restraints with a swing of his wand. “you do not get to play a game of hide and seek today.”

“what do you even want from me right now?” mark mumbles as he hops on one of the desks.

“i think you completely misunderstood what happened between us.” donghyuck steps closer to him. this is it.

mark sighs. “no, i get it, you were just saying all that stuff so you could make fun of me later. i’m not even mad about that, it's not like you knew that i-i-”

“when i said stuff like….not today?”

mark’s face turns red, and donghyuck smiles. just the thought of it is enough to make him blush. “you can forget about all of it, okay? and give me a few days to recover so we can go back to nor-”

donghyuck shuts him with a long kiss and reaches over to grab mark’s hand, guiding it to his face, the same position they were in yesterday.

“i meant now, and tomorrow, and probably eternity, if you’d just let me.”

“permission granted,” mark breathes as he motions with his wand to seal the door shut. he tries to lean in again but donghyuck shakes his head and tsks loudly. 

“you got to say all that was on your mind yesterday, but now it’s my turn,” he announces, and mark nods furiously. “first of all, you’ve liked me for two years and i’ve liked you for four, so i win in that regard.”

“it’s not a competition, donghyuck.”

“no interruptions! second, that time at the quidditch game, when you thought that i might like you too? i was actually going to confess right then and there, had it all planned for a long time. so you were right, to an extent.”

“and third?”

“third, now you get to kiss me, whenever and wherever you want.”

“in front of everyone too?”

donghyuck thinks about the hell chenle and jisung, and in extension jaemin, have put them through. he puts his arms around mark’s neck and smiles diabolically. “especially then.”

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading ♡
> 
> you can find me on [cc](https://curiouscat.me/puppylove) and [twitter](https://twitter.com/demonyukhei)!


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